21. Nine Villages in Two Gullies - Jiuzhaigou

Whereas Zhangjiajie provided the heavenly joy of seeing the natural beauty of mountains that soar into the clouds, Jiuzhaigou let us earthly folks revel in the natural beauty of water as gravity guides it lower.

The name "Jiu 九(nine) Zhai 寨(village)" says that there are nine villages originally in this area. They are the settlements of the native Chinese minority tribes of Zhang (Tibetan) and Jiang people. The word "gou 沟" literally means a gully, i.e., that part of a mountain valley that has water running through it. Where the water is slowed, large pools of water are formed. Normally, we would call such fresh water bodies lakes. But since the Zhang/Jiang people are so far from seeing a real ocean, they can only dream of seas. So, every lake in the Jiuzhaigou area is named a "Hai = sea". The entire area is a y-shaped gully that starts at an elevation of 1990 meters, rising to the top 'Hai = sea', the Long Sea, at 3150 meters. The park entrance is at the north end, the tail of the 'Y'. Today, we went up the east branch.

As we stayed at the new Sheraton Inn, we can almost walk to the park entrance. Along the path, we can already see a rushing stream of pure and cold water. Our tour group was ushered into the Guest Building and they took a photo of the group. This photo is then printed onto our entrance ticket. Ah! Digital technology is indeed ubiquitous. But as we shall see, this scenic park is right up there in adopting modern measure to keep the park in great shape environmentally.

Because by late October, the peak summer season is already over, large tour buses and personal vehicles are no longer allowed inside the park. Instead, the park only allows a fleet of 25-passenger mini-buses to be ran and they would follow a group and turn off the engine when not needed. The interesting thing is that these are not really 25-passenger buses but what Americans would normally call 9-passenger minivans. Now you figure out how to fit 25 people into a 9-passenger minivan, and I have not even counted the driver and 2 tour guides!

So, what do you see in Juizhaigou? Nothing other than blue skies and even bluer lakes, eh, I mean, seas. As we walked up (or down) beside the gully, the place is dotted with large and small waterfalls. The most spectacular, for the first day, is the Nuorilang Falls (诺日朗瀑布) which is supposedly the widest highland fall in the world. While it is no challenge to Niagara Falls in size, the fact that foot paths have been laid so one can get real close to it made it a wonderful experience.


Click to enlarge

There are of course, plenty of websites that document the beauty of Juizaigou, e.g., in English: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jiuzhaigou_Valley (this one explains everything) and, in Chinese: http://www.cpanet.cn/zxyz/yuan-j/index.htm (great professional photos). But the photo posted here is mine, slightly digitally enhanced.






For those whose major activity during a tour is shopping, Jiuzhaigou does not disappoint either.
What I can't understand is that every one of these stalls is selling the same Tibetan handicraft. Now, how do you decide which stall to buy from is a mystery to me. One nice tip though; you can buy a very nice and very real-leather cowboy hat for $15-20 RMB (less than $3 USD) depending on your bargaining skills!





As we rode the environmentally-correct buses up the gully, the air gets thinner, the temperature drops, your ears pop, and the scenery gets even better. When we got to the Long Lake, everyone thought that it looks just as nice as Lake Louise in Banff, Canada. But to me, this is better, this is a place discovered for years and still remained pristine.




But that is only half of the Y branches of Jiuzhaigou.